Monday, March 31, 2014

Hi! Couture Creations Designer Sue Smyth here today. I love to make little off-the-page gifts and decorative pieces. Creating this standing bird house with everyday items and Couture Creations dies
is so easy to do. Just follow the instructions below.

I have used a small terracotta pot, which I havepainted with gesso and misted with colored sprays.
I like to flick over other colors to give the pot an aged mossy look.

Add a faux bird nest and bird to the top of the pot, along with moss, feathers die-cut leaves and sticks.

To start, hand draw a bird house shape onto thick chipboard. Tip: If you struggle, just download a template from the net.

Decorate the pot with paper roses, a faux bird nest and bird feathers. Cut leaves from green cardstock using the Ivy Die.

Adhere the house to the painted stick and insert the stick into the pot. Note: I have wedged a large piece of styrofoam into the pot to hold the stick secure.

Add finishing touches like a scroll with happy birthday, tiny daisies, moss and painted sticks. Make some handmade flowers using the Retro Flowers Die and a brad and secure them to the top of the house.

You can personalize the house to your taste and to that of recipient. Happy crafting!
~Sue

Roughly hand-draw the head and body of a peacock on Dark Blue cardstock. Cut out the figure.

Ink the edges and shadow highlights of the neck and the eye of peacock with a black inkpad and a Sponge Dauber. Highlight the features of the eye and face of the peacock with a fine white pen.

Cut small strips of Orange cardstock and use them to create a crown on the head of peacock. Cut a small beak from Orange cardstock and glue to the end of the peacock face. Place Crystal and Green Envy Self-Adhesive Gemstones to the head of peacock as shown in photograph. Highlight areas with a white pen as shown. Add a Moonlight Self-Adhesive Pearl to the center of the peacock eye.

Punch an assortment of small oval shaped pieces (you can use a small oval nesting die) and leaves from Lime Green and Ocean Blue cardstock. Ink the edges of the oval shapes and leaves with black ink and a Sponge Dauber.

Place one peacock feather die-cut on top of another peacock feather die-cut,
slightly off center, and adhere with glue. Alternate the color of
feather on the top.

Use a Sponge Dauber to apply black ink to the edges of each feather. Apply Crystalina and Green Glitzin' Glamour Glitter Glue down the center of each double-layered peacock feather. Let dry. Repeat the above process for each peacock feather. You will require around 25 doubled layered feathers to complete this project.

To create the background of the project, place a stencil on top of black cardstock and gently apply white ink over the stencil using a Sponge Dauber.

Place and adhere the body of the peacock on the black cardstock with 3D Foam Dots. Adhere 3D Foam Dots or Foam Mounting Tape underneath each feather. Arrange clusters of feathers as shown.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Hi! Couture Creations Designer Patti Hamil here today. I wanted to show how to create a layout using scraps. I had some pieces
left from the Damask Delight paper that I wanted to use. The colors were
perfect for our daughter's photo taken during the last week of her
pregnancy!

First I decided to take my smaller scrap, which was a striped pattern, and
cut several sizes of circles using the Circle Nesting Dies. I
started laying out a basic pattern that I liked for the page. Once I
liked the look, I used Double-Sided Tape to adhered the circles to white cardstock. I took a green and blue marker that
matched the paper and did some "faux stitching" around the larger
pieces.

I wanted some blooms on the page, I'm a flower junkie, so I decided to
just make some by hand. Very easy. You can use any of the Couture
Creations Floral Nesting Dies or Circle Nesting Dies. For this type
bloom cut 3 circles, 2 the same size and one smaller.

I then took blue ink and a Sponge Dauber and inked the edges of the die-cut layers.

I then layered and pinched them together. I crumbled each die-cut up first
and then carefully unfolded it, then attached the layers together. Then
you can just play with the petals until you get the look that you like! I
used the cut off part of a stem from a manufactured flower, the kind
that have the twisted ends, you can fray it and it makes a great flower
center!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Hi! Dana Tatar here today sharing a set of cards that I created for the Couture Creations Winter CHA Booth today. I used dies from the NEW Glamour Days
Collection, as well as some of my favorite Nesting Dies to create this
romantic set of cards. This card set is published in Issue 2 of the Couture Creations Creative Inspiration Magazine!
This magazine is FREE! Please take a look. You will not want to miss
the projects and tutorials that my fellow Couture Creations Designers
share in this issue.

I went all out designing these cards! I had a lot of fun embellishing
not only the front of each card, but also the inside! The inside of each
card is stamped with a sentiment from the A Banner Day Clear Stamp Set from Paper Wings Productions. The sentiments reads:

Life is not measured

by the number of breaths we take

but by the number of

moments that take our

breath away.

How romantic! *Sigh*

I used a two-step process to create the silhouette pendants for this card set.

Part One: Use the Devonshire Lady and Gentleman Die
to cut a lady and gentleman silhouette from black cardstock. Attach the
lady and gentleman die-cuts to pieces of patterned paper with Double-Sided Tape.
Add a small amount of glaze to the top of each die-cut and press a clear
pendant over the top of each die-cut. Once the glaze is dry, trim any
excess patterned paper from around the pendants and glue a gold rose to the top.

Part Two: Follow the Beaded Cabochon Tutorial by the mega-talented Sandie Edwards.
Cut two pieces of light brown cardstock with the smallest Oval Nesting
Die. Cut two pieces of white cardstock with the smallest Scallop Oval
Nesting Die. Ink the edges of all die-cuts with Vintage Photo Distress
Ink. Secure the brown oval die-cuts to the white scallop die-cuts with Double-Sided Tape. Glue the now beaded pendants to each oval mat and secure to the embellished card bases with Foam Mounting Tape. Finish each card by adding a floral cluster under each pendant.